CREATIVE AGENCIES REQUIRE GENUINE PASSION TO BUILD BRANDS : AGBOLA

communications landscape fared last year as well as the contribution of the
Lagos Advertising Ideas Festival to the growth of creativity in the country

How will you describe business in
2017?

From the point of view that advertising
industry is not immune to the economic reversal going on in the country, I will
say 2017 was a bit tough. Thankfully, the oil price is going up now and I
expect this to impact on the economy positively very soon. We must not forget
that the dwindling oil revenue occasioned by the price slash and the sector’s
production below capacity starting from 2016 adversely affected the economy.

When do you expect things to pick
up?

Well, if we get the budget passed
on time by the House of Representatives and the Senate and the executive assent
to it, we would begin to see some positive changes in the economy from first
quarter. For now, between the lawmakers and executive arm, there is still buck
passing and foot-dragging over the budget, but honestly, we need the budget
done and treated on time.

Do you see the electioneering
campaign and the World Cup opening up the industry this year?

Definitely, that’s going to help
because the World Cup is a major event. Some of our clients will participate,
which is good for the industry as spending is expected to pick up. Same with
politics, the race for 2019 basically starts now. You will see more smart politicians engage
the services of professional agencies. If they really want to get good outcome,
they need to invest in quality campaign. In that wise, we should expect a boost
in the industry.

In the 2017 LAIF Award, your agency stepped up
from 9th position to 4th. What is the secret?

Basically, it is hard work and passion; that’s
the way I see it. We have a team of young and committed professionals in the
agency. They are passionate about what they do. What we have done is to show
what we can offer in the marketing communications industry and more important
in building brands along with our clients.

In 2016, we were rated 9
position, we sat down and asked ourselves “is that the level we want to play?”
We said no. We need to push ourselves harder. The result is where we find
ourselves now. However, we are not there yet. We want to be at the top of the
ladder.

What are the works that won you
the awards?

I will mention a couple of works
for some of our clients. For instance, Uber won considerably in silver and
bronze in the radio category. The digital campaign for Mainone also won bronze.
The work that won gold for us was our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
campaign. It is called the Frixion campaign, an anti-rape campaign. We felt there
was need to sensitize the community in which we operate and the country at
large on the evils of rape by advising people to seek consent first before
sexual relationships. To achieve this, we created a fictional brand called
Frixion Vodka. We used images of
celebrities, musicians and actors without their consent as models for the
Frixion brand. These people were enraged and asked their lawyers to sue
us. However, we apologised to them and
let them into the idea behind the campaign as “good cause”, they were happy and
decided to give their full support to the campaign across all media and
channels of exposures.

This particular campaign also won
us a bronze at the Loeries, making 7even Interactive the only agency in West
Africa to be awarded any medal at the Loeries awards last year.

With these local and
international awards, 7even Interactive becomes one of the focal points, how do
you contend with the likely upsurge in competition?

Competition, for us, is opium; it
is what drives us. The truth is whatever industry you play in, if there is no
competition, you would be lethargic. It
makes us to benchmark ourselves against those perceived to be leaders in the
field as we are always on fire. If we don’t compete, how do we even measure
ourselves? We are very ready to slug it out with whoever it is and we are sure
that with the team in this building, we are ready to stand up to competition.

Despite the paucity of creative
talent as commonly alleged, how do you spot your talents to build your team of
creative soldiers especially as a young agency?

The creative industry doesn’t
depend on what someone studied in school. Most of the times, we look for
talents who also reflect our DNA because you can also learn on the job. We are
heavy on training and retraining. We look for people who think the way we do as
a very young agency, looking at the fun side of issues. So, once we know that you are someone that is
very inquisitive, you may make it to becoming part of us.

Such a person must be passionate
about the job because he/she can be called anytime to come to the office. The
truth is that we live for the clients. If the client wants something done, it
is our job to get it done. So, if you are not passionate about it, you won’t
fit too well into this agency

As a young company, are you not
intimidated when you pitch a business against more established and older
players?

You can’t achieve except you
dare. The truth is that if you are going to be looking at the agencies you are
going to pitch against, you would not be in business because there are some who
have been there for 10, 20, 30 years or even more. Aside, if you look at the
top five agencies in the LAIF 2017 medal table only one agency is from the old
school, which has been there for 30 years. There is a shift in thinking; we are
not scared.

We are thoroughbred
professionals, we are playful and we go there with the best of works. If for
any reason the client decides not to work with us, we shake hands and we move
on to the next one. We are not bordered whether there are any antics and we
don’t even think of that. What we think about is we compete to win. If for
anything we don’t, we take lessons from it and we move on.

Most of the older agencies didn’t
have impact at the Awards, what does the future hold for 7even Interactive?

There is no disrespect to all
those agencies. When you speak of some that have gone into oblivion, you also
talk of those that have transcended and still exist. For instance, Insight Publicis
and DDB are going stronger. The business of advertising is dynamic. I think
some of them failed to change with time hence, the fate they suffered.
Contemporaries have changed over the time. The kids that just left schools few
years ago are now marketing managers and marketing directors. Do you think that
a marketing director, who is 28 – 30 years old, will like to interface with the
MD of an agency, who is almost 60 years?
Even if they meet, do you think they will flow?

We need to keep reinventing
ourselves. You don’t need to stay too long on a thing without reinventing
yourself; other agencies will come up and outstrip you. When you travel for
awards or trainings in other parts of the world, you see creative directors and
managing directors in the age bracket of 28 – 30 and you begin to wonder what’s
happening in my industry. The youthfulness and age of ideas also matter a lot
in advertising.

Tell us about the LAIF’s campaign
that became ads-of-the-world’s choice?

When we were approached to create
the communication for LAIF, we asked ourselves, “How do we see ourselves in the
industry”. People sweat it out on the
shop floor producing a single ad. Our people slave away like robots. It is same
in 7even Interactive and other agencies. We were able to make this something
fun, something light hearted and something everyone will see and identify with.
LAIF itself gives you a lot of materials and opportunity to explore. We are
delighted a lot of people including international players like the work.

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